The small non-coding vault RNA1-1 acts as a riboregulator of autophagy

Abstract

Vault RNAs (vtRNA) are small, 88-100nt non-coding RNAs found in many eukaryotes. Although they have been linked to drug resistance, apoptosis and nuclear transport, their function remains unclear. Here we show that a human vtRNA, RNA1-1, specifically binds to the autophagy receptor sequestosome-1/p62. Antisense-mediated depletion of vault RNA1-1 augments, whereas increased vault RNA1-1 expression restricts, autophagic flux in a p62-dependent manner. Bulk autophagy induced by starvation reduces the levels of vault RNA1-1 and the fraction of RNA-bound p62. These findings show that RNAs can act as riboregulators of biological processes by interacting with proteins, and assign a function to a vault RNA.